And Then There Were Two

 Two what you ask?   Two decks, that is.    Joel and I decided that since we were on a roll, why not knock out another smaller deck?   And so we did.

After all, once you have all the tools out and most of the lumber required to make a smaller deck we figured we may as well just do it.   And besides, how could we not take advantage of this unseasonably warm February?   When we woke up this morning it was already 59 degrees!

So we built the box, strengthened it with joists and attached it to the existing step at the back door of the same screened porch as the first larger deck.   Our puppies have been having a hay-day digging up the yard in this part of the farm, so, we have been dragging a lot of mud and debris onto the porch.   Now we have a great way to step outside when we leave early each morning to take care of our animals.....at least 2 strides will be up out of the mud.

Even though we had to make a trip into town to buy 4 more 8' deck boards this afternoon, we still managed to finish up before dark.  It felt really good to put away all the tools knowing we wouldn't have to drag them out again to complete this project another day.   And I think the two new decks add a little something to the porch, too.  

I should back up a bit here to explain that before we could begin our second deck today we had to make a trip down off the Plateau to pick up our beef.   Yes, remember we took Beef Cake to the slaughter house 2 weeks ago?   Well, now our freezer is fully stocked with our very own beef.   We think this should last us at least the next year.  

Total beef count:(approx. count, I got tired of counting with my frozen fingers!)
 66-1(lb.) pkgs. of ground beef
20 pkgs. of cubed steak(2/pkg.)
14 pkgs. of rib eye steak(2/pkg.)
10 filets(2/pkg.)
15 pkgs. N.Y. Strips
2 large loin tip roasts
7 chuck roasts
2 rump roasts
2 round roasts
4 shoulder roasts
stew meat and ox tail(for ox tail soup.....one of my favorites)

We also got the heart and liver that we will cook up over the next months(there was a lot!!) and give to the dogs as a treat.  All in all we are pretty pleased with the cuts of meat we choose and are already figuring out what recipes we want to use first to sample the meats.

Whew!   What a day we had today.   While we are both bone tired, we love that we were able to finish up these projects before the weather turned on us again.   I just watched the forecast and we are supposed to get severe weather tonight and by Sunday morning we are going to be back down to 28 degrees.   Yup, winter's not over yet.

So please enjoy this pretty sunset over our roof as we haul our tired bodies off to bed.

Time for some couch time,
Debbie

Time for Some Decking

You know how sometimes you have to live somewhere for a couple of years before you know exactly the kinds of DIY projects you want to tackle?    The kinds of projects that will neatly fit in with the way you live in your house day in and day out.   Well, we came up with just such a project and this one only took us three days from start to finish!   Hallelujah!

The main entry to our little farmhouse is thru the screened in porch on the back of our house near the parking area for our vehicles.    There is one step up before you enter the porch thru a screen door......a screen door that has a monster strong hydraulic closure feature.   Now, that feature is great to keep the door closed when the winds howl here.   But I cannot tell you how many times that sucker, er, ummmmm, that door has hit me in the ankles as I was juggling groceries, a purse and my keys.  

Joel and I also were tired of stepping off the porch in rainy/snowy/sleety weather to have the water surrounding the brick pavers at ground level just off the porch splash up muddy drops onto our pants and shoes.     The solution?    A deck!  Yes, we're simply brilliant, aren't we?    A deck would elevate us above the muck....and (she says, breathlessly...) we could make the step at the door level with the porch, eliminating the juggling act of stepping up and pushing against the insistent screen door whilst trying to not drop an armload of goodies.

Yes, we can do this, right?   You betcha!    So, off to Lowe's we go......loading our allotted amount of different boards into the back of Joel's truck.    Once we got home it was time to pull out all the necessary tools to make this baby come to fruition.    Thank goodness Joel owns just about every tool known to man....they sure do come in handy.

While Joel was retrieving his tools I got to work digging up the brick pavers.   Yea, no more mud splashing on my pants!

Next it was time to build the main box that would support the largest section of decking.   It got attached to the porch and supported with 4"x4" posts on cement.  We used levels to make sure the deck had some slope to it so the rain would drain off of it.

Of course every carpenter needs a helper....and Saber was more than happy to volunteer.  He got right up there in Joel's face.......it was as though he was saying, "Come on buddy, let me try that drill."

Things are looking good, wouldn't you say?    We had to take a little break for some lunch and it was nice to see how much progress we had made in just a few hours.

Yes, every job requires a bit of caffeine.   Joel likes his afternoon coffee hot and I like mine cold.   That board on the saw was just the right place to keep my drink away from the curious dogs.   And speaking of curious dogs.....look who settled down in between the boards while we were working.

 Once we had the main base built it was time to decide how large to make the smaller step up onto the porch.    The goal was to be able to stand level with the porch, open the screen door and walk inside without having to step up at the same time.   Hey, don't laugh, but we're doing all these projects with how we will be able to function as we age.   And the more we can reduce tripping hazards, the better. Ya' think?

Alright!   So we have a 10'x10' base with a 4'x4' step up onto the porch.   Everything is secured and nice and sturdy.   The joists are in and now it's time for the fun stuff.....decking!

Because Lowe's was out of 10' boards, they gave us 12' boards at the same price....that's why some of these are so long.   Pretty soon we'll have them all cut to the correct length.   But it's starting to look like a deck now, right?  I was getting pretty excited at this point.

Day two saw a lot of progress.   We got most of the decking down, holes drilled and screwed at each joist.   Oh, our aching knees and backs!   But it looked so great we kept going, what's a little pain?   Only the sliver of a board on each side of the 4'x4' box needs to be cut.  Oh, yea....and the step onto the porch, too.

That part wasn't so much fun.    You see, the screen door was flush with the original porch, but when we swung the door out onto the deck it got stuck.....darn it.

No problem.   We simply removed the screen door and cut some off the bottom.   After a little sanding of some high spots on the step into the porch, the door worked just fine.    Whew!   Glad that worked out ok.

So day three was finishing the upper small deck, filling in the couple of boards around the door, cutting off the door and sanding the boards and trim.   Well, not exactly trim, but the finishing touches that we feel make the deck look a bit more professional.    First, we snapped a chalk line on each deck so I had a straight edge to run the saw against.   That helped me cut off the excess wood at the end of both decks.

Next, I used the jig saw to round the corners...you know, so we don't bang the daylights out of our shins on the pointy corners of the decks.   Last, but not least, Joel ran the router around the edges to make them nice and rounded.   And with a quick swipe of the broom, we were done!

Soon we'll extend the railroad ties that butt up to our parking area filled with gravel all the way up to the deck.   One more load of gravel should help to fill in up to the deck at the lower end of the pic above.   Now I'm on the hunt for some farm-y accessories.....you know, things like galvanized tubs for either side of the small deck.   I think that will be the perfect place to put some seasonal flowers and plants to brighten up the space.  

Now our guests should have no doubt which door to use as an entry to our home.   And I no longer have to get muddy while making my way to the car.   The dogs sure seem to like the deck and they have made themselves quite at home on it as you can see Shadow happily chewing her bone there.

It was so nice to take advantage of the rare 65 degree February weather to complete this deck project.    But wait!   There's more!  

Stay tuned,
Debbie

Beef Cake the Steer

 Meet Beef Cake, our steer.   Isn't he adorable with those big brown eyes?  And oh, those eyelashes!  Beef Cake has been a short term visitor to our homestead.  When we purchased him early last summer it was with the express purpose that he would soon fill our freezer, so, even though I named him we didn't allow ourselves to develop an attachment to him.

His time on our farm had finally come to an end.  Last Thursday Joel and I went out to the barn a little before 3pm.   We wanted to allow ourselves a few hours before dark for the task at hand.  The moment had arrived to round up Beef Cake and prepare to take him to the slaughter house.   How hard could it be?  Giggle....

But first things first.   We had to figure out some logistics such as do we have the right ball on the hitch of the car to haul this particular stock trailer?   Check.  Now, to hitch and back up the trailer at just the right angle so as to block off any access of escape from the barn that Beef Cake may try to take.  Check.

Swing open the large heavy back door of the trailer against the hog panel that blocks access to the long corridor leading out to the pasture.  Check.  Hey, we don't want to have to chase a steer all over creation to get him inside the trailer.   We closed off gates as best we could to control which areas he would have access to.

That  included penning the girls inside the barn so we didn't have to contend with them running interference as we tried to push Beef Cake in the direction of the waiting trailer.    Check.   Ha!  

Sounds easy, right?   Except you weren't here when we got our boots stuck in the muck trying to get all three cows in the barn.   Then, Joel went into the pen, separated the girls from the steer and drove Beef Cake ahead of him as he shot out of the gate I was holding.  I quickly shut the girls inside the barn.   At least now everyone is separated and all we have to do it get Beef Cake into the trailer.

What you're looking at is Beef Cake....he's a little put out that the girls are in with the hay and he's stuck outside with us.   Let's take a moment to catch our breath.....Check.

Um, yea.....the grin on Joel's face is because we spent almost half an hour chasing animals around the pasture.   Why were we chasing cows, you ask?   You thought the girls were all penned in the barn???    Of course it wasn't that simple!  After rounding up the girls and isolating them inside their pen, Joel had walked out of and closed the gate he is standing next to.....the gate that keeps the cows in the barn.  

Now we thought we were ready to herd Beef Cake into the trailer.   There was one slight problem, though.   Joel forgot to latch the gate and as we were working on getting Beef Cake up to the trailer, the girls pushed their way thru the gate and escaped, creating havoc with all three cows running around the small pasture next to the barn.  Instead of just one cow needing to be herded, now we had to start all over again.

Oh, yea, the three of them loved this new game.    I had scattered the cows' favorite corn, molasses, and grain feed in the trailer and both Buttercup and Baby Belle casually waltzed right into the trailer and began munching on the feed.   The girls had no compunction about getting in the trailer whatsoever.   All the while this was going on Beef Cake was stubbornly hugging the back fence line.  Uh-uh.  No way.  He wanted absolutely nothing to do with that trailer no matter how enticing the feed inside was to him.

Ok, so we managed to secure the girls back in their pen, only this time Joel latched the gate so there would be no escaping for them.   By now Beef Cake was fully on alert.  He knew something was happening here that he didn't want to participate in.   And add to that the fact that he has had very little contact with Joel and he was not going to come into the little pasture next to the barn.  

Our idea was to lead him into the little pasture and close the gate behind him, giving him smaller and smaller areas from which to plan his escape as we pushed him closer to the trailer.  I stood in the trailer shaking a bucket with his feed in it, calling to him the whole time.   Usually he runs straight for that bucket as he greedily gobbles up the feed.  But not this time.  He kept looking at Joel and was not about to fall for our ploys.
 

Finally he walked into the small pasture and Joel was able to close the gate behind him, cutting off his escape route.   Ah-ha!    Our plan was working.   NOT.   I got tired of waiting for him to come to me and walked up to him with the bucket and shook it, willing him to smell the feed and take a few bites.  He actually ate right out of the bucket for me and I continued to walk backwards, inching ever closer to the waiting trailer.    I would get him to within 6 feet of the trailer and then he would spook and run back into the small pasture.   This happened over and over again.   And if Joel tried to sneak up to the gate Beef Cake would sense his nearness and back up into the small pasture, thwarting our plan to trap him up near the trailer.

I guess it was another 20 minutes that passed with us trying various tricks to get him into the 9'x9' area we had cordoned off behind the trailer, making it hard for him to go anywhere else but inside the trailer.   I went inside the trailer again and dumped more feed in there, hoping to entice him on his own.   There was no way we could push him in because he was so quick on his feet we had to dodge him on several occasions so as not to accidentally get bumped into.

For some odd reason, by chance Beef Cake walked right into the 9'x9' area....probably trying to get away from Joel.   Joel shut the gate behind him and walked into the tiny 9'x9' area with Beef Cake. The steer took one look at Joel and bolted right into the trailer.   Huh!   It was that simple.  Beef Cake just didn't want that "guy" to get anywhere near him.   Joel quickly latched the heavy trailer door shut and gave a victory chant.   Check.    We had successfully trailered an animal all by ourselves!

All that was left for us to do was to remove the hog panels that had served as fencing to block Beef Cake's escape and pull the trailer up to the house.   We were both really glad that we had planned ahead and corralled the steer into the trailer the night before our appointment instead of trying to accomplish that early in the morning.

It's nice that our plan worked this time.    We may have had to alter it a bit as we went along, but we got Beef Cake into the trailer alone....with no outside help.   Not like when we had to get the pigs to slaughter and it took a couple of days and 7 of us to round them up!    Holy cow, I don't ever want to have to repeat that process.

The following morning we drove down off the plateau to the slaughter house where we had an appointment to process Beef Cake.   We learned a lot about rounding up animals Thursday, what to do and what not to do.   And I have to say we were pretty pleased with ourselves as we gained some new found confidence in our ability to wrangle these animals on our own.  Life here is one giant learning curve, one that we love to experience every single day.

Beef Cake is at the slaughter house and they called to say he weighed in at 643 lbs.   Now we wait to see how much beef that translates into and will it all fit in our freezers?    Guess I had better get busy and make some more room for all the beef we're about to bring home with us next week.

Blessed indeed,
Debbie

The Sap Run

I know, I know.....some of you folks are wondering what in the world is she talking about now?   Sap, as in the sap in trees.   To be more specific, I'm talking about the sap in maple trees.   And as for the "run" part, that just means the sap is coming from the ground and being drawn up into the trees.  

During the most frigid months of winter the sap is very slow to move inside the trees.   But when the temps rise above freezing during the day after being below 32 degrees at night, the sap starts to be drawn up into the trees.   Thus, the term, "run".   Ok, it's not running with legs, but it's traveling at a pretty good pace as you'll soon see.

Two years ago I had read how you could tap black walnut trees.   Yes, I was surprised about that too.   I had always had the impression you could only get syrup from Sugar maple trees.   Well, there are more than a dozen varieties of trees that can be tapped for their sap and then cook it down to create syrup.  Who knew?!?   Well, we bought taps from a company in Canada and after some trial and error we made syrup from our black walnut trees.   And was it ever yummy!   It tasted just like maple syrup and nutty at the same time.

Now, why, you ask, didn't we tap our maple trees that winter?   Duh!   We hadn't been living on the farm that long and without the leaves on the trees I couldn't tell which trees were maple, oak, beech or shagbark hickory.  (Yes, we have quite a few of those.)  I made a point of watching all of our trees close to the house this year during late summer and fall to clarify in my mind which trees I wanted to tap this year.   Oh, yeah.  And I missed the "run" last year because the weather warmed up so fast and the run was done before we had a chance to catch the sap.

And so last week Joel and I decided it was time to tap the maples and give them a try this year.   We had been saving milk jugs since early December.   Yes, they are the stars of our Exclusive line of Sap Collectors.  Very chic, indeed!  

And the core hardware used in sap collecting is these little beauties.   They are well made metal tap, and hollow inside which allows the sap to run from inside the tree down into our collection containers.

These taps are made in Canada(they do a lot of syrup making up there) and are designed to be driven into the tree after a hole is drilled.  If you don't drill the hole first, and simply drive the tap into the tree, the wood clogs up the tap.  And then there would be no sap coming out of the tap.

First you drill the hole "up" at an angle and a little over an inch into the tree.   Don't worry, this doesn't harm the tree and the holes seal up on their own once the tap is removed.

Then you "tap" the tap into the hole with a hammer, leaving enough space behind the ridge on the tap for the milk jug, er, um, our Exclusive Sap Collector to hang.

Before you start running around tapping trees, though, you need to make sure the tree is at least 14" in diameter so as not to harm a younger tree.   This particular tree is inside the fencing of the potager garden.   Late this fall we moved the swing into the potager so I could sit there and look down over our valley.   The swing made a great place to hold all of our equipment while we drilled the holes.

Then Joel cut a specialty hole.....ok, so it's just a triangle, but that took some skill.  Tee-hee.   Not too big or the jug will blow off the tap in the almost constant winds we have here.

See the drip getting ready to fall off the tap?   Yes, well, that was after less than 30 seconds of being in the tree.   Oh, yeah, baby, we hit the timing just right this year.  Notice the ridge at the top of the tap.   That is an integral part of this simple operation.   Great design by those guys in Canada, by the way.

My Tree Tapping Expert lines up the hole in the jug with the tap and slides it on, making sure the edge of the milk carton is over the lip of the ridge at the top of the tap.   And that's all that holds the carton onto the tap until we come out to empty the contents twice a day.   We've only had one carton that has blown off so far, dumping it's liquid on the ground.

See the sap at the bottom of this jug?   That was what had collected in the time it took us to drill the four holes and install the jugs on this much larger tree out in our front yard.   It's really surprising how fast the sap runs.   If you put some on your finger and taste it, it mostly tastes like water with just a hint of sweetness on your tongue.   Sap is somewhere in the range of 94-95% water which is why it needs to be boiled down to evaporate the water and what you are left with is syrup.

Since this tree in our front yard has a diameter of somewhere in the neighborhood of 20" we could put 4 jugs on it.   Oh, I forgot to mention that the idea is to put your tap somewhere above a large root coming out of the ground.   This tree had so many large roots that we could put a tap almost anywhere around the tree.   We noticed there were old holes made by a bird called....wait for it.....a Sap Sucker.   Some of those holes were actually seeping sap down the sides of the tree.  Yes, we hit the run at just the right time.

So this year we are only tapping the maples and only two trees, at that.   Remarkably, the sap has been running so fast and furious that I have had to empty the jugs twice a day.   And where do I empty them?    Into the largest pots I have that will fit into our spare refrigerator down in the pavilion.  

There is just one problem.   We have collected so much sap in a week that the refrigerator is full with the largest pots I own, each of them filled to the brim with clear sap.   Sigh, such a good problem to have!    The sap needs to be kept cold so it doesn't get moldy, which means I can't just set it out in the open because our temps have been fluctuating into the 50's here lately.  

You know what that means, don't you?   Yes, we had to start boiling down the sap yesterday to make room for more in the refrigerator.   Here's how it works.   You sit outside, get the biggest burners you have and put the pots on top and sit and watch for hours as the sap boils down.   The 94% water in the sap evaporates from the pot and as it does the sap turns from a clear color to a soft yellow to an amber.

The pots need to be watched so they don't boil down to nothing which would ruin the batch.   Once the liquid in the pot boils down to about 2" more sap is added and the process begins all over again.   Wash, rinse, repeat.  For hours.    Like 4-6 hours.   On a dreary, damp, windy day.   While we drink coffee and sit in our comfy lawn chairs and read a book.  

Every once in a while I take a fine meshed sieve and scoop out any froth that collects on the surface of each boiling pot.   Our goal this weekend is to cook down the almost 15 gallons of sap we have collected in a week so it fits into a small pot which will go back into the refrigerator.    We will repeat this process every week as long as the sap is running clear in the trees.   Once the sap collecting in our jugs turns cloudy the run is over.

The very last step in this process is to take the amber liquid we have spent hours cooking down and bring it into the house where we will refine the final stages of creating syrup.    I'll post more on that in the weeks to come, complete with pictures for you to see our progress.   And now you know what we are doing this weekend.  

I'm sure it won't be long before I can show you pictures of the final stages of our syrup making process.   Until then, we'll keep on collecting sap and boiling it down.   It'll be interesting to see how much syrup our work yields this year.

Sticky fingers,
Debbie

Dogs and Cats....Cats and Dogs

We love all our farm critters.   The "inside dogs".   The "outside dogs".  The barn cats.   The cows and chickens.   Yes, we love all our animals.   But these Pyrenees puppies have stolen Joel's heart.

They greet us every time we step off our back porch.   They keep Joel company each trip he makes to the chicken coop, sitting at the gate waiting patiently for him to return from completing his bird chores.  They walk to the mailbox with me every noontime, and proclaim "A package has arrived from UPS" as the delivery man puts the parcel in a bin we keep outside our entry gate.

And whenever we have any work to perform in the barn they are always there, guarding us(you know that's a very important job for a Pyre), keeping us company, and "assisting" with shooing the cats around the barn.   When we mucked out the barn a few days ago I looked past the gate separating the cow pen from the rest of the barn and there were the puppies, lying quietly and keeping an eye on everyone and everything that was happening.

We were gifted our barn cats the month we bought the alpacas.   There was a Mama cat and her three kittens.   Mama was pretty feral, as were all the other cats at the farm where we bought our alpacas.   I've never had a cat as a pet before and so I had no expectations of what kind of relationship we would develop over time.  

Well, it wasn't long before Mama cat actually let me pet her, occasionally, as I was feeding her and her babies.    She not only tolerated my petting but started to meow her request of "more, please!".   It wasn't too long and her babies were also allowing me to stroke their soft furry backs....some were happy to receive the added attention, others not so much.   To this day, Chloe is the most stand-offish of the four cats.

How do the cats and dogs get along, you ask?    Surprisingly, really well.    When the puppies first came to the farm they would try to satisfy their curiosity about the cats by walking right up to them and attempting to sniff them.   Ha!   That was usually met with a quick swipe of a cat's paw to their nose.    The puppies soon learned their limits with each of the cats and now the four cats and two puppies have developed a healthy respect for one another.

The cats have grown bolder in their attitude toward the puppies and I've even caught them(the cats) lying on their back, taunting the puppy to move in ever closer.   And then just that suddenly, the cat will bolt up and run thru the large open weave of the wire walls separating the pens in the barn.   It's quite a dance these critters perform and they never seem to tire of playing with one another.

Except for Chloe.   She had just about had enough of the puppies on this particular day and she swiftly climbed her way up, up, up higher into the rafters of the barn.

Nope, I'm not high enough yet!

"Ah, yes.  Now that's better." she says.   And the puppies walk around below her all the while wagging their tails because they know soon enough she'll come back down and play once again.

The weather was so beautiful on this one day last week that Joel and I decided to take a walk down off the farm into the valley below.    I never tire of the view of the majestic bluffs that line the lower portion of our farm.  We feel so blessed to be stewards of this land for a few years and love our time spent with the critters running around the farm.   Come and see us sometime and we'll show you why living here makes us so happy.

Looking forward to acquiring more critters this Spring,
Debbie

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Tractor

Remember the movie Jaws?    I"m sure we're not the only family that quotes one of the best lines in that movie.....you know the line.....when the guys on the boat get a close up look at Jaws and utter....."We're gonna need a bigger boat.".   Well, that's been Joel's line here lately, except replace the word boat with the word tractor.

When you first move from the city to the country, you have absolutely no idea exactly what size equipment you might need to invest in.   Sure, we knew we needed a tractor.   But since we had no intention of sowing seed on 50 acres we surmised a sub-compact tractor would be sufficient to take care of our hobby farm needs.  

But then we had a few alpaca die......sure would have been nice to have a tractor with a backhoe (or as I fondly call it, a "digger tool") to dig their burial hole instead of using a shovel.   That phrase usually elicits hoots and howls from Joel.   And then there is the never ending supply of manure for our compost piles.   We used to shovel the poop from the alpacas out of the barn by hand and Joel schlepped it in the wheelbarrow to the compost pile.

Then we sold the alpaca and got back to our original intent.....animals that produce food we can eat.   And so now we have our sweet Jersey cows who will provide us with milk, cheese and other dairy goodies for many years to come.   After breeding, if one of the calves is a bull, he will provide us with meat.   There's just one thing, though, about cows.   They poop....a lot.....in huge piles.....seriously!    A lot more than alpaca, that's for sure.

Dairy cows need protection from the winter elements, and so we put the cows in the side of the barn where the female alpacas used to live.   Now the cows have the barn to keep the elements at bay and that works just fine, with one exception.   When it was nice weather I used to go inside the pen with the cows and walk down into their pasture to drop their morning and evening ration of hay into the hay feeder.    But when Old Man Winter arrived, it was slick walking down hill to the feeder and I really didn't relish the idea of slipping and falling on the icy, snowy incline.....littered with, you guessed it, poo.   Now that creates an image, doesn't it?

Joel came up with the idea of building a manger inside the barn attached to one of the walls where I could simply pop the hay over the top of the wall into the manger, thus eliminating the need to walk anywhere slippery.   We spent an afternoon a few months ago building and tweaking the manger and it works like a charm.   With one exception.

Now the cows hang out in the barn a lot more hours of the day.   You know what is coming next, don't you? It would stand to reason that if they hang out in the barn more, they will also poop in there more.    Aw, man.   Thus bringing me back to Joel's lament....."We're gonna need a bigger tractor.".

Yeah, that's a mess.   And we like to keep this area as clean as possible since the cows sleep in here at the far back corners of the pen.   There's no way we can muck out the barn using shovels and a wheelbarrow.   Well, we could, but it would take us hours and hours by hand.

And even when we switched to using the tractor we realized we should have a bigger tractor with a bigger bucket on the front.    As it is now, Joel makes trip after trip picking up the  contents on the floor of the pen and running it back to our newest compost pile.

I should backtrack a minute here.   See the cows watching Joel?   Well, we have learned by experience that the cows are very curious animals and when we have worked in the barn in the past, they hang out with us.   They generally get in the way, stand behind the tractor as Joel is trying to back up with a huge pile of manure-strewn straw in the bucket of the tractor and walk all over the areas we are trying to clean up.   Now I know that before we start any work in their pen, I have to round them up and drive them into a small pasture with a gate.....where they stand and watch our every move.   Funny critters!

So, back to the tractor.

Joel loves to extoll the virtues of all he could accomplish "If I had a bigger tractor..."   I just smile at him and nod my head in agreement as I visualize huge dollar signs in my head and think, "No Way!".

Even with the use of the tractor, mucking out the barn still requires some hands on work with the shovel....and that's my job.   You know, as the assistant barn mucker.   Giggle.....On this particular day, I had to shed my barn jacket as the exertion of shoveling out the corners and sides of the barn warmed me plenty.

I had to show you this pic.    When we first walked out to the barn Joel spotted two of our barn cats sitting nice and comfy, one each on the seats of his tractor and my mower.   Can you see the black and white Mama cat on the seat of the mower in the background?

Miss Chloe was quite cozy nestled on Joel's seat.....that is until he shoo-ed her away so he could use the tractor.   The cats love to sit up there where the dogs don't think to look for them.   It's been so much fun to watch the interaction of the four, wiley barn cats and the Pyrenees puppies.  

Once we are finished cleaning out the barn I walk back to the cows in the pasture and open the gate for them.   They are so funny!   They immediately head for the barn......I believe (unless you can prove otherwise) they are excited to check out their newly cleaned  pen.   First, they get a drink of freshly drawn water and then they look at their salt lick and, of course, they wander over to the manger to see if I put in some fresh hay for their treat.

The last place they check out is the fresh bed of straw where they will lay their sleepy heads at night. See what I mean?    Don't you agree they are curious and smart animals?

This coming week we have a new challenge to meet.   It will be the first time we have to round up one of the cows and get him into the stock trailer.   You see, Beef Cake, our steer, is going to the slaughter house on Friday.   But we think it may take us (ahem) a little bit of effort to coax him into the trailer, so, we plan on working on that Thursday afternoon so we are prepared to leave the farm first thing Friday morning.  

After Beef Cake is gone, I guess one good thing about us only having the two much smaller mid-mini female cows is .....you guessed it......a whole lot less poop to scoop.   See, we may not need a bigger tractor after all!

Wish us luck,
Debbie